Gamblers flock to Isle of Man

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32460, 21 November 1970, Page 12

Gamblers flock to Isle of Man

(By

JUDSON BENNETT)

One hundred Canadians, mostly businessmen, boarded a jet at Montreal airport the other day on the first stage of a short packagedeal holiday. For many of them, the vacation was not a cheap one. They were quite prepared to spend tens of thousands of dollars . .« and some did. They were off, to fact, on a gambling holiday—to play roulette, blackjack and dice at What is rapidly becoming the world’s top gaminghouse. Their destination, strange as it might seem, was not Las Vegas or the South of France. Journey’s end was a tiny island sandwiched between England and Ireland—the Isle of Man. It is perhaps small wonder that planeloads of gamblers from all over the globe are descending there in everincreasing numbers every week. Declining Las Vegas is fast declining in popularity because the tax investigators haVe moved in, and are apt to ask wellheeled visitors to show how they got their money to bet with. The Bahamas and the South of France are also feeling the pinch because winnings are heavily taxed—up to 80 per cent to some cases. On the Isle of Man, however, there are no such pressures. There are no tax inspectors, and the highest tax deduction is 20 per cent. As a result, the Isle of Man -self-governing and Englishspeaking has become 'a gambling paradise. But the picture hasn’t always been so rosy. At one stage, the casino came within an ace of failing to get off the ground, and plunged the island into near bankruptcy. Casino opposed It was back to the mid50s that the question of a casino was first raised. It triggered a furore at the time, and a poll among Manxmen, carried out in 1956, showed a precise 50-50 split The Roman Catholic priesthood saw no sin in it, but the Methodists denounced it

To gambling men, however, file odds were even, and that was a good enough start to be going on with. So it wax six years later that the matter was raised again. Indeed the island’s genera! election was fought on the casino issue. The procasino group argued that a government • backed casino would not only provide government income to the shape of a cut of the profits, it would also attract freespending tourists to boost the tourist - based, and flagging economy. Despite stiff opposition from many of the unsophisticated folklore - steeped Manxmen, the pro-casino faction swept in . . . and an American syndicate invited to open a gaming centre and hotel to Douglas, the island’s capital. 'The casino will make or break the island,” said Mr Harold Colebourn, then a Manx Member of Parliament and Tourist Board vicechairman. “If it fails the clock will' be put back 20 years. If it works it will bring untold prosperity.” It was, in short, a gamble —a gamble which very nearly broke the island. Early troubles In 1963 a temporary casino was in use. It was opened by Diana Dors who christened the roulette table to the syndicate’s satisfaction by betting six times running on number 13, and losing. By the beginning of the following year, however, there was trouble. The gambling syndicate—elderly millionairess widow Mrs Helen “Lady Luck” Saul, William Albury and John Hickey—were well behind with their schedule to find a new site for the casino and a £500,000 casino hotel. The two men were in America, and plans still hadn’t been submitted despite anxious reminders from the- island’s government. “They have been at fault and very lax,” complained the head of the Gaming Board of Control, Mr James Cain. Weeks later a storm broke that made the building ‘Please’ on the switchboard If you add "please” when you ask a telephone operator for a number, she is more likely to make mistakes than if you do not Apparently the addition of polite but irrelevant information interferes with her memory process, and no amount of training makes much difference. According to a report by a 8.8. C. science writer, George Short, the discovery was made in an investigation into short-term acoustic memory at the Applied Psychology Unit at Cambridge. However, it provides no excuse for brusqueness. If you say “please” before, not after, the number, it has no harmful effect life

schedule row a bagatelle. Aibury and Hickey were accused of conspiracy to deprive the government of casino royalties, found guilty, gaoled, and recommended for deportation. Low ebb “We have been made to look like fools by linking ourselves with an enterprise in the hope of raising revenue by such an unsavoury method as gambling," said Mr Edward Callister, a member of the island’s House of Keys. For a while, it looked as

if the project had foundered and the fortunes of the island’ plunged to their lowest ebb. Then Crockfords came to the rescue. By the end of 1964, the reputable London gaming club had bought out, the dispirited Mrs Saul, and, almost at once, began to build the magnificent casino and hotel which the world’s top gamblers know so well today. From then on, the isle began to boom . . . and it was not long before foreigners—ltalians, Canadians and Americans in particular—were flying in by the

planeload. And thousands of pounds were regularly won or lost within minutes. While other nations have sought to attract gambling tourists, their efforts have been puny compared with the Isle of Man’s vast casino business. Now, special packagedeals to the island are being offered to Americans . . . and the island seems certain to take over as the world’s number one gaming centre. It’s perhaps small wonder that the tiny strip of land in the Irish Sea is now being called the Isle of the Gambling Man.